Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - Out-Islandering the Islanders sure is fun

Episode Date: March 31, 2021

The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Islanders at their own game on Monday night and it was sure a sight to see. Hunter goes into the defensive clinic that the Penguins put up in the third period and wonders if this can happen each game in the playoffs if these two teams meet again. He also gets into John Marino's sensational performance and why it was premature to write off his long-term struggles just a few weeks into the season. Jared McCann also stayed hot, are the underlying numbers backing up his campaign thus far? Hunter also talks about the inconsistent officiating and why "reffing to the score" needs to vanish from the league. All that, plus much more on this episode of Locked On Penguins.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey everyone, welcome to this Wednesday, early evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the show's Twitter at L-O-U-U-U-Square-Penguins.

What a win it was again for the Penguins last night. If I'm not mistaken, that is what now? four in a row for Pittsburgh. They closed the month of March going 12 and 3 and 2. If my math serves me correct, that is one of the best marches for the Penguins. I think that's their best one since 2013 when they had that 15-game winning streak

when they were just blowing teams out left and right. But we knew this month needed to be big for Pittsburgh. They came in to March hovering around 500. Now they exit March at 23 and 11-2, tied for second place in the East Division. Again, they are almost a playoff lock at this point. The only reason the Islanders have the tiebreaker right now is because of regulation wins. If the Penguins continue to take care of business, they have four games left against the Sabres,

five games left against the Devils, a couple more against the Rangers. If they continue to take care of business against those teams, I think they definitely will get home ice for the first round of the playoffs. Remember those two points for Tuesday night's game if the Penguins do get home ice in the first round. There's also an outside chance that this team could, and, fact, when the East Division, they are only two points back of the Capitals of, as of this recording, excuse me, the Capitals are playing tonight against the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden, so we'll have to see if the Caps can continue their winning ways as well.

But back to the Penguins, you know, getting to 6 and 2 against the Islanders, that's no easy feat. This is an Islander team that gave the Penguins fits for the last couple of seasons. I think going into this year, the Penguins had one regulation win in their last 6, 7, 8 games against Barry Trots as Islanders, it had been a massive struggle for Pittsburgh ever since they got swept in 2018-19 against that team. Last year in 2019-2040, the pause,

they were just losing almost every time against Islanders. I think their only win against them came when, I think Brian Rust had those heroics. They were down 3-0, and they won the game 4-3 in overtime. They might have won another game in Pittsburgh, but I think their record against them was really only, two and four and like I said one of those wins was regulation the other one was overtime so it's been a nice contrast to see the penguins really play well against the islanders like I said six wins against them

um the islanders only have 14 total losses here and basically half of them have come at the expense of the penguins so islanders fans I'm sure islanders media really don't want any part to do with the penguins as the playoffs near um if you were to ask me right now who would win a seven game series between those two teams It's close to a coin flip, but honestly, I would lean Pittsburgh in six to seven games. I'd probably say seven games right now for the penguins just because of how they've played against them this year. And you saw last night, it was a stark contrast from the game on Saturday where the penguins let the foot off the gas after they're going up with their big lead. I know last night they only were up two to nothing. But, you know, even after the outlanders made it two to one, the penguins locked down defensively.

And this is honestly what they do when a lot of players go out to injury. I wish we could see it more often when the team is fully healthy, and I think we will, just because of how well they've been playing under Mike Sullivan and, you know, ever since Brian Burke and Ron Hextall have taken over, you get a lot of these pieces back and they potentially add someone via trade. They could lock down even better defensively against a lot of these other teams. And you saw it last night in the third period, especially. I know they didn't play that well of a second period.

I think they only had, what was it, two scoring chances, maybe one at high danger or something along those lines. Islanders were really taking it to them after the Penguins took it to them in the first period. That first period of Tuesday night of Monday nights game, excuse me. And yes, I do realize at the beginning of this episode, I said a Wednesday evening episode. Of course, I have my days mixed up. Today is a Tuesday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. So please don't scold me for that. I am literally just losing track of days here, you know, as we near the month of April.

So again, apologies on that, but just watching the third period on Monday, getting back to what I was talking about, I really only counted one shift where the islanders were really threatening in the penguin's defensive zone, and it was around, I'd say, the five-minute mark that you had them hemmed in for about 90 seconds, I think it was the Jankowski line, because of course it was the Jankowski line. Speaking of Jankowski, I don't know if any of you saw his failed saucer pass. I think it was after the penguin's couple of goals, but it was a sad attempt at it. He really could not do anything right now, and I'm really hoping that, you know, once they get some of these bodies back

and potentially he had someone via trade, that he truly is out of the lineup because he has been absolutely awful again. I just don't know what he's doing on a nightly basis, but, you know, coaches love that kind of player where he's just defensively responsible and nothing else. But anyways, getting back to that. But even when the islanders had them hemmed in their own zone, they were doing a lot of perimeter passing, and Dominic Moore was talking about that on the NBC Sports Network broadcast on Monday night. And, you know, I was a little bit harder at the beginning just because he was talking about getting under Cindy Crosby's skin and showing highlights of Cindy Crosby Mad during the 2014

Ranger Series. It was like, okay, nobody cares about that anymore. That's seven years ago. But other than that, I thought he did a really nice style with his color commentary. And he had a great line. He was saying, like, yeah, the Penguins will take that all day. If you're not going to threaten in the middle of the ice, you're not going to get to the high danger areas. I mean, the Penguins will let you pass along the perimeter for an eternity. And that's exactly what they let them do, as I don't think the Islanders had a single good scoring chance during that 90 seconds of zone time. After that, though, just a defensive clinic for the penguins for the last three, three and a half minutes of that period.

I think in the final two minutes, the Islanders must have iced the puck three to four times. In the final minute, even, I don't think the Islanders had any zone time in the Penguins' defensive zone, except for one last gasp with like less than 10 seconds left, and I think to Smith had to make a save. But other than that, I mean, the Penguins were playing lockdown defense. I tweeted this last night. They out islandered the islanders. That's hard to do with how the islanders play some of the most low event hockey in the league, and they always make you work for your chances and all that.

But the defensive effort that I saw last night, that's probably one of the top three most impressive defensive efforts of the year for the penguins, and I'm really hoping that continues. Like I said, as they continue to get bodies back, Brandon Taneff, and Teddy Bougar, I think you're getting closer. They participate in an optional morning skate on Monday. We'll see if they're back at practice. Wednesday. And you know, speaking of

injuries, it's almost like a soul for a soul, as Madge had said of the 4-1-2 sports talk. Jason Zoker comes back. I thought he had a really strong game. He should have had a sure goal. I think it was when it was 2 to 1, the third period. But he basically shot it right back into Semion Varlam. I've had a half-open net.

It couldn't do anything with that just basically hit the outside of his pad, excuse me. But I was really impressed with his game last night. He was skating beautifully. For someone who was offer, what was it, 18, 19 games, something like that. It looked like he hadn't missed a beat at all, and he was skating like he had been playing for those last 18, 19 games.

I'm really curious to see how he plays the rest of the season. He's obviously waiting for Hvgeny Malkin to come back. He's waiting for Kasperi Kappen to come back, or, you know, he could be waiting for the Penguins to make a trade to get a center because he might be the third line left winger because of how Jared McCann is playing right now, and just how he played next to Afghani Malkin. And I'm going to touch on Jared McCann in the next. segment. As for some other stuff, Tristan Jari, of course, with the injury. I don't really know what happened with that. I tried to go back and watch it. I didn't really see anything that got

him hurt. There's obvious concern for a potential concussion, I guess, because the medical staff thought it would be best to pull him. At least that's what Mike Sullivan said after the game in his post-game media press conference. So I'm not really sure what it is. I'm hoping it's not a concussion. Sullivan did say after the game that it's an upper body injury. Usually he will come out and stray, say forthright, that it is a concussion, but, you know, sometimes the symptoms take longer than, you know, 15, 20 minutes or, in this case, like an hour, hour and a half to come in. So hopefully there's nothing to that there. They did recall Maxime Lagasse, Lagase. I think that's how you pronounce it. It's either the former or the latter. I apologize if I mispronounced. His last name,

they were called into the taxi squad, so we'll have to see if that's bad news. I mean, I'm just honestly waiting for them to announce that Jari is week to week with some sort of upper body injury. But, you know, Casey DeSmith came in last night in relief for those 40 minutes. What a run that he is on right now. That is his eighth consecutive game where he has gone 920, 930 or better. Overall, this season, if you look at goals save above expected, he is seventh overall, I think, with seven and a half goals save above expected. He's winning one of the best goaltenders in the league this year. And if Jari has to miss a couple of games due to this injury, the team, I think, should be fine just because they don't have, I think, a few back,

They don't have some back-to-backs coming up for a little while now. And I think DeSmith should be able to hold the fort until Jari comes back whenever that is. But, you know, like I said, I'm really hoping that it's more short-term. So he doesn't have to start like 15, 16 games in a row or something like that to end the season. But he basically won them the game, especially in that second period, made a lot of 10-bell saves. I think the Islanders overall had 14 high-danger chances last night at all situations. At 5-V-5, it was 10. He stopped just about every single one of them.

The only goal that he gave up was the Matt Martin Power Play goal, basically on a deflection. He really had no chance with that one. But I just continued to be impressed with the play of Desmith. Again, he looks like a completely different goal than what we saw during the 2018-2019 season. And I can't wait to see how he continues to improve as this season goes along. You know, being seventh and goals he above expected with not even a huge sample size to go with, that's pretty, pretty awesome if you ask me.

You know, I don't think he's going to get any love for the Vezna just because he's a backup. You know, that's obvious right there. But, you know, maybe he could be a little bit of a dark horse if he gets to start a lot of games in row. But like I said, don't expect him to be a candidate for the vestin, despite how good he has been. We still have a lot more to get to for this game, especially about the goals. Jared McCann, Anthony Angelo, the play of Chris Letang. And, you know, that call that got him pretty myth. That's as mad as I think I've seen Chris Laetang in quite a while, if you ask me.

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of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes and follow this show's Twitter at L.O. UnderSore Penguins. So let's get to some Jared McCann talk because we all know he's a very streaky player. I mean, he started off last season. I think scoring like what, six goals in the first 20 games, something like that.

And then of course, you know, going into the pause, he finished with one goal in his last 25 games. So, you know, obviously he's a very streaky player. But also, I keep saying this about that streak when he only had one goal in 25 games. His shooting percentage was only around 3.4%. So I think a lot of it was considered bad luck. Because if you look at it as underlying numbers from that season, I mean, they were hovering around 50%. I mean, his expected goals for was around, I think, 53, 54%, something like that.

So he was still playing well, but also I keep going back to, like he kept bouncing around from line to line, wasn't really finding a home. And this year, yeah, I know he's kind of been bouncing around between line and line as well, but it's not like virtually every game that this has happening. If you look at his course E. Fenwick percentage this year, 54.6% chances for 212 chances against 176. That is only 23 games, so I understand it's a small sample size, but this blows away any of his core C percentages throughout his career. The highest before that came in 2016-17 with the Panthers when it was 51.3%.

So he is having a career year right now in terms of that. If you look at his underlying numbers for the month of March, so here's some stats from you, courtesy of Jesse Marshall, he tweeted this out first. you all did not see this. Please, if you do not follow Jesse Marshall, I don't know what you're doing. Jared McCann, for the month of March, 57% control of the 5V5 shot share.

So in other words, when Jared McCann is on the ice, they're controlling 57% of the shots. And here's another stat for you all. When McCann is on the ice, the penguins have 64% control of the 5V-expected goals. Again, that's sensational. And 89% control of the 5V5. goals scored when Jared McCann is on the ice. I mean, I understand that he has eight goals,

and it's been a bit streaky for a lot of this season, but his underlying numbers are backing that up, and he's been one of their best players this season. I don't really know why some people in the media have written some trade articles about him during the season, even when he was playing well, you know, like the what do you do with him or something like that? I mean, the answer is obvious. You play him, and especially with that kind of contract, he makes what, 2.9 million this year and next year, I honestly want the Penguins to extend him right now with how he's playing. If you just look at his regular points, you know, 16 points in 23 games this year for Pittsburgh. Even last year, when he went on that big goal with straw, one goal in 25 games to end the year,

he still had 35 points in 66 games. I mean, that's what, 0.5 points for game? That's still pretty good, but this year it's been even better. It's hovering around like, what, 0.65 points per game, something like that. you know my math is probably a little lock just because I'm not a math major, but I think it's somewhere around there. I think it's only going to continue to get better, especially when Afghani Malkin comes back from his week-to-week injury,

Kesperi Kappen, because when that line was going with McCann on there, they were controlling the expected goals, the goal share, the shot attempts, and virtually every other metric at an elite level, and I'm really excited to see what that line can do when the other two players get healthy. But also, what a pass from John Marino to get that puck. to McCand to basically have him one time that in, pass far along with. I thought that game from Marino last night was probably his best game of the season.

And I even said it on Pittsburgh Post game with Matt Geica. It's almost like if you take away Mike Matheson from John Marino and put Marino with Pedersen, he's going to get better results because both Marino and Matheson, they love to have the puck on their step. They're both offensively minded defensemen. I know Marino is really good defensively, but I think he's an offensive player first with how,

well he can move the puck and how well he can playmate in the offensive zone. Mike Matheson is the same way with how he moves the puck up the ice and how he likes to play on the offensive zone. The pair just wasn't working because they were getting swarmed in their own end and just hemmed in basically the entire time. If you look, I think, at the expected goals for when Matheson and Marino were on the ice together in the sample size of season, it's like 41, 42%. But then when Marino is away from him, it's around 50, 51%, just like you saw last year when

it was with Marcus Pedersen. So keep that pairing going. I know a lot of people, you know, myself included, want to trade Marcus Pedersen for some forward help just because it makes a lot of sense. And Pedersen has not really been that good this year. If you do do that, just put someone else with Marino so he doesn't have to play with Matheson and have his game be dragged down. I mean, for God's sake, put Mark Freeman up there or someone like Yusole. I think he's healthy, but he also hasn't played since non, basically. I still don't know why.

on the Eus Oricola decided to resign with the Penguins as he's just, like I said, he's never going to get playing time unless they actually do decide to trade Marcus Pedersen. But even with the Angelo goal last night, it was great to see Angelo get. I think that was what his third goal of the season for the Penguins. I had a buddy text me last day and say, you know, I wouldn't mind if Angelo was the 12th forward on this team in the playoffs. And it's like, I don't mind if he's like the 13th, 14th forward. I think Freddie Goodro should have a little bit of seniority over him because I think he's

better than Angelo, but I think in a playoff series against a team like Washington, Boston, or the Islanders, or even someone else, if they decide to sneak in, I really don't want Anthony Angelo as my 12 for just because, you know, he's the kind of player that can disappear for long stretches. I'd rather bring in someone via trade, you know, a center, you know, a right, like a winger like Anthony Mantha, someone like that, that can actually show up when needed and who's a much better player overall. So, like, I don't mind Anthony Angelo. He is what he is. He's a solid 13th, 14th forward that can play some games for you, but if you really think you can compete with the Stanley Cup with him as your 12th forward,

I'm afraid I've got some bad news. I just really don't think he does a lot about. But like I said, it was a nice goal from him last night, but what a feed of from Reno again there, to just kind of like circle the net a little bit and put it right where Angelo was, and he's able to tap it in five-hole past far-Lama. And the power play looked pretty shitty prior to that goal. I think the first 80 seconds they could hardly even get into the zone.

even the first unit was looking pretty bad. And then, you know, well, what do you know the penguins get a power play goal? Because, of course, they do when the unit continues to stink. But, you know, the numbers-wise, it's not going to tell you it stinks, even though the process a lot of times looks pretty bad. That's now five power play goals in the last three games for the penguins. I think they're now 20th overall in the league for power play efficiency. So, you know, baby steps, you know, we'll do a little small clap there for the penguins.

But still, this is a power play that should be top-ten in the league with a talent that they can throw out there. So yeah, still, being 20th is a bit unacceptable. The PK, again, was mostly pretty good last night. I know they gave up a power play goal to the Islanders, but I think that's now 20 of the last 21 penalties that the Penguins have taken have been completely killed off. So again, you know, baby steps, the PK has gone a lot better.

What do you know when you take out Brandon Tanev and Teddy Blugher, the PK is awesome. So I'm sure when they come back, he's just going to go back to stinking for whatever reason. I really don't understand it. And I think that's mainly it from last night's game. Oh, I guess one more thing about the, I guess we'll bring up the Chris Latang thing.

I noticed at first I didn't really understand why Chris Latang got so miffed at the official there for what cases Zizekis did. Because on first glance, even watching the replay, I'm like, it just looks like a simple play. But then watched it a second time, and I zoomed in a little bit, Zizekis is basically just holding Latang's full arm in and isn't letting him go. And he's the one that drew the penalty because Latang reacted and he basically shoved him and crushed him down to the ice. I know the ref is going to call that all the time in Latang retaliated, but the ref still has to see that Zizekis is not letting him go. He's basically just bear hugging him there for like three to four or five seconds. And it's no wonder Chris Latang got so miffed at the officials there.

He had a couple bad turnovers in the game of overall. A little bit of an off game for him, but you know, sometimes one of your best players plays like shit in some of your games. It happens. I'm sure he's going to bounce back in the next game on Thursday against the ruins. Who, yes, of course, the Penguins have not won against in Boston since 2014. So sleep with one eye open tonight, everyone. And that will conclude this segment. Coming up in the next segment,

we will get to the listener takeaways. Before we do that, it is time to talk about a couple things. One of them being bet online, the fastest it needs is way to bed on all your sports action. Football might be over, but the NBA, college basketball, and NHL and full swing. Bet online even covers awards, TV shows, and reality TV. You can get real-time, updated odds,

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Madness, in fact. The matchup today in the flavor for four or the final four, cookies and cream versus Kokido chunk. This is really close, but I have to go with cookies and cream to get to the championship, as they say, for Bill Bar. Then you'll other matchup. I think that'll be tomorrow is mint brownie versus coconut brownie chunk. Remember, you can go to Bill Pard's Twitter at bar underscorebrill or Billetbar.com to cast your vote. And you can use the promo code locked 15 to get 15% off your next order. That's locked 15 to get 15% off your next order at Bilper.com and check back to see who won today's matchup and who will become the best tasting protein bar as we can include the month of March very soon. All right, welcome back to this

episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow this show's Twitter at L-O- underscore Penguins. So let's finish up the show with some listener takeaways. I haven't done these in a little while now, at least a few shows, but I wanted to get them and get your thoughts. King Clark, he says, mayhap's people were overreacting when Marino wasn't the single best

defenders in the sport for that three-week span. Hey, you know, Clark, I usually call it how it is. I thought Marino was playing like shit. I didn't expect it to continue for a whole season just because of how well he played last year. But, you know, like I said, it's almost like if you take him away from Mike Matheson, who has brought players down this year while he's played with, you know, not to a Jack Johnson level, of course, someone gets that bad. You take someone away from Mike Matheson, who's not going to the defensive zone,

and you put him back with Marcus Pedersen, who is a steady defender. It is a more of a defensively-minded player first. It's almost like, wow, you see the rewards that Marino was reaping right now, and he's been absolutely awesome these last couple weeks. Him playing at this level for the rest of the year in the playoffs votes really well for the Penguins' chances if they want to make a run here. Iris, AJ says, hopefully Jari is okay, but it's sure nice to have two solid goalies. DeSmith was awesome.

Ruffs were unreal with how one Saturday were after the Penguin's second goal. I mean, it's one thing I always will hate and always will rant about when it comes NHL officiating. I even tweeted this last night. The rething to the score, they always do this. Because the Penguins are up two to one, they're not going to get a pennsylvania. for some undefined stupid-ass reason. You know, oh, well, they've already had enough power plays.

We want to make the game interesting or some other bullshit reason that the league has to basically control their officials with how they call games. I mean, there was a couple times last night, Calcutterbuck was taking runs at players, and then he took a couple of runs at Brian Rust. No call in the third period. It's like, wow, you know, classic roughing to the score there. You see Matt Martin taking runs at players.

And, you know, I understand that that's Barry Trottis' identity line. that's their fourth line of Zizekis, Martin, and Clutterbuck. I know Islanders fans like to say that that's the best fourth line in hockey, please. I mean, when the Penguins are fully healthy, I will take Zach Ashen, Reeves, Teddy Blugger, and Brandon Taneff a hundred times out of a hundred over the Sizekis over. I mean, two of the players on that line are not even good offensive players. I mean, that line is basically controlled by Casey Sizekis. So I really don't understand why so many people overrate that line. It's always funny to see people just obsess over.

you know the way they obsess over Drew Doughty. I mean, I'm seeing Drew Doughty get Norris' favorite votes from NHO.com today. And it's like, are people, are we watching the same sport this year? Where is the love for Cal McCar? Where is the love for Adam Fox, Victor Hedman? Where is the love for freaking Charlie McAvoy, who's carrying the Bruins defenders on both of his legs? I know Matt Belerslick's been good.

McAvoy is by far their best defender and has by far been their best defender this year. So I really don't get the obsession with Drew Doughty. He's probably one of the most overrated players. that I've ever seen talked about in my lifetime, and it's ridiculous that this keeps happening. I guess it's people in the media saying, well, you know, he plays on the West Coast, so you don't get to see him a lot. I mean, Dowdy's been good this year. Don't get me wrong.

But to say that he's the Norris favorite over players that are having her statistical seasons. I mean, that's just ludicrous to me. Anyways, Philip Cox says, dismiss his fire. Yep, absolutely. He was awesome last night. Big Red says, my big takeaway, it's what I shouted at the TV once the final horn sounded. now who's winning 2-1 hockey games. Yes, absolutely.

They beat the Islanders at their own game on Monday night, and please inject that into my veins. Everyone that has listened to this podcast knows that I hate Barry Trots hockey. It is so boring to watch. It's this low-event hockey. Like I said, it's not the devils of the 90s or the 2000s, but it's a tough watch, trust me. After watching it for eight games,

I really don't want to have to watch it for seven more in the playoffs. I think eight games is quite enough. but yes, they out Islander the Islanders at their own games. But he said, but seriously, it was a great show that Sullivan's system works that everyone is committed. Absolutely. And I really want to see how this works when everyone comes back, especially Big Red, because if they can make it work like this when they're fully healthy, they will, it's going to be hard for a lot of teams to beat them four out of seven times

in the playoffs, you know, outside of maybe like Tampa Bay, Colorado, they have someone like that. Philip Cox also says Lackardy has looked better at these last few of the games. I agree. I think Lafferty has looked pretty decent these last three games. It's a step up for where he was the previous 20, 23 games, something like that. But, you know, I'm not going to complain right now if this is the way he's going to play as the team's 13th forward. I really have liked, I've noticed his speed a lot for these last few games, and his playmaking ability has also been on display a hell of a lot more than it was in the previous 20 to 23 games. So, yes, I agree with you on that.

Alan T. Oder says, decent first period, bad second, sort of kind of good third. too many penalties. Also no need for constant Tim Peel jokes after just about every question of a little miss call. Both Penn's goalies are incredible. Hopefully everything is okay with Jari. He was talking about the Tim Peel jokes because apparently Alan was at the game, but in someone a few rows in front of them was talking about that. So, yeah, I can understand your frustration with that. But I do reveal, you know, Casey and Smith playing awesome. And yes, I really hope Tristan Jari is only out for a couple of games at the least. Or honestly, I'm hoping he's back at practice tomorrow because the penguins were they had an off day today and we'll end it with mr no

it all fingers crossed it something minor for jari what a dog fight would have liked to see a repeat of the first period in the second and third but we can take what we can they came hard and we answered one was money and goal passed up some opportunities to put the puck on net yeah i do i think in the third period they were passing up some prime scoring opportunities but i think that game also looks a little bit different if zulker converts on that chance i think it was seven minutes into the third period if he doesn't shoot it right back into Varlamma because he had a half open net would have made the game 3 to 1 and I think the game would have been 100% over at that point but like I said what a defensive clinic it was for Pittsburgh it was absolutely a dog fight and yeah Casey de Smith

again was sensational that's probably the seventh time I've said that for this episode but that'll do it for this episode of the lockdown penguins podcast I really appreciate all of you listening to this one and I'll be back on Wednesday sometime in the evening early afternoon and something like that with another episode for this podcast. We'll probably preview the series against the Bruins as they'll have a game on Thursday at 7 o'clock and then a matinee game on Saturday at 1 o'clock. So that would do it for this one. Hope you all the great rest of your evening and I will talk to you all on Wednesday.